Social and economic development of underdeveloped & developing countries bringing about an equitable growth eradicating the poverty, hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy and providing the poor better livelihood options...

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New agricultural technologies are need of time and to address the crisis of
agriculture. PF is one of them that incorporate various modern ways to address
the issue.

What is Precision Farming (PF)?

Precision farming (PF) or satellite farming or site specific crop
management (SSCM) is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring
and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops. Crop variability
typically has both a spatial and temporal component which makes
statistical/computational treatments quite involved. The holy grail of
precision agriculture research will be the ability to define a Decision Support
System (DSS) for whole farm management with the goal of optimizing returns on
inputs while preserving resources.

·Originating in US and European countries where farms are
generally big (over 100 hectares), it sees extensive use of Global Positioning
Satellite (GPS) for precise mapping of farms and - with appropriate software -
informs the farmer about status of his crop and which part of the farm requires
inputs like water, fertilizer and pesticide etc.

·PA in western countries is also characterized by
increased mechanization with the use of heavy farm machinery (average power
100-200 kW) for all the farm and field operations such as sowing, harvesting,
weeding, baling etc. The machinery runs on fossil fuels and uses about 63
percent of the total energy used in farming - a significant amount.

·Similarly drones are being used quite regularly in Japan
and US for insecticide application to the crops. Use of drones for agriculture
is proverbial "turning swords into ploughs. Most of these robotic machines
and drones are small in size and hence are very suitable and excellent match
for small farm applications. Thus small farms size of India is a blessing in
disguise and ripe for large scale application of precision agriculture.

·PA in US and other countries has shown tremendous
increase in productivity, lowering of inputs and hence increased remuneration
to the farmers. Besides it has helped improve the quality of land with no-till
farming and less water usage. Similar things are possible in India with its
use.

Indian scenario

·Wealth and security of the country comes from its land
and hence what is needed is sustainable, high-tech and high productivity
agriculture which will be remunerative and help provide both food and energy
security. Precision agriculture, which can provide precise inputs like water,
fertilizer, insecticides at the right time to crops, can help bring in the next
green revolution.

·In the existing agricultural scenario, India is
characterized by small farms with around 80 percent of total holdings less than
2 hectares (5 acres) and land mostly rain-fed with only 30 percent irrigated.

·Around 55 percent of the Indian population depends on
farming, as against less than 4 percent in US and other advanced economies,
because of heavy mechanization of agriculture. Because of poor availability of
funds, farm inputs, poor support price structure for the produce and almost no
farm insurance, farming in India is non-remunerative and 50 percent of farmers
are in debt - the main reason for a large number of suicides.

·India, though one of the biggest producers of
agricultural products, has very low farm productivity, with the average only 33
percent of the best farms world over. This needs to be increased so that
farmers can get more remuneration from the same piece of land with less labour.
Precision agriculture (PA) may provide a way to do it.

·For small farms, precision agriculture may include
sub-surface drip irrigation for precise water and fertilizer application to the
crops and robots for no-till sowing, weed removal, harvesting and other farming
operations. Some of these robots are already being used on small farms in US
and Europe and with vigorous R&D taking place, it is expected that they may
be deployed in large scale in near future.

Constraints and solutions

·The biggest criticism of mechanized agriculture is that
farm machinery is very costly and no farmer, including big ones, can afford it.
Since precision agriculture is going to be very dependent on mechanization,
this criticism is presently justified.

·However the mechanization and PA may give rise in a big
way to farm machinery leasing agencies in rural areas. These companies will
lease the mechanized equipment, including drip irrigation systems, to the
farmers and also provide trained manpower to run these machines.

·Such a thing already exists on limited scale in India
where few agencies do the wheat harvesting using combines and spraying of
crops. They charge the farmers on per hour basis and with theunavailability of
farm labour, farmers find this concept economical and attractive.

·In western Maharashtra, more and more farmers are
depending on mechanization offered by such agencies. With increasing demand
these leasing enterprises will increase and as PA develops and increases, they
will get more structured, so that just like private taxi companies, they will
be available on demand.

·It is also envisaged that these leasing companies may
form the backbone of Indian agriculture by providing the necessary advice and
manpower to the farmers on precision agriculture.

·Critics of mechanization also contend that by timely
sowing of crops and applying proper and recommended water and fertilizer to it,
a farmer can easily improve the productivity of crops and his income. However
application of inputs at proper time requires timely availability of labour,
water and fertilizer - all of which are becoming scarcer and scarcer.

·Besides majority of farms are rain-fed and with the
change of weather patterns, availability of rain water is very unpredictable.
Hence the non-availability of inputs and labour on time is the biggest
stumbling block to increase productivity of farms and remuneration. PA can help
in this matter.

·The ultimate role of a farmer should be to identify
better crops, use that seed to propagate it further and hence in effect become
a breeder of sorts. Progressive farmers already do that and with more time
available to them because of PA they may be able to help Indian agriculture to
produce better and higher yielding varieties.

·Also the mechanization will make the farming glamorous
and may attract more people to take up farming in a big way. The most important
component in taking PA forward will be in creating a huge resource of
engineers, scientists and agriculturists to develop various components of the
technology.

·Without excellent manpower and consequently good R&D,
PA will not succeed. One of the misfortunes of Indian education system is that
all the good students want to get into engineering and medical streams and only
the leftover students go into agriculture.

·There is a need for excellent engineers from institutions
like IITs, NITs, etc. to design machinery like robots and drones for PA. This
can be facilitated by establishing a new branch of engineering called
agricultural mechanotrics or robotics where faculty and students from almost
all branches of engineering will interact and collaborate to develop smart
systems for PA.

·Another way forward is when scientists from ICAR institutes,
engineers from academic world, industry and farmers work together in developing
PA.

·PA may provide a platform for industrial corporate social
responsibility (CSR) activity. After all helping the rural poor improve their
livelihood through high tech farming should qualify as a CSR activity. The
Indian government can facilitate in this process by giving soft loans and sops
to the industry so that they get more engaged in agriculture and PA activities.

·High tech PA therefore can help in bringing next green
revolution to India and can produce tremendous rural wealth in a sustainable
and environmentally sound way.

·Farmers and farms are the backbone of any country since
they can produce food, fuel (agricultural residues) and wealth from the land.
They should be helped by all members of society and developing PA is a step in
the right direction.